The HandTutor assists recovery of upper limb dexterity in stroke patients

In the April edition of NeuroRehabilitation http://bit.ly/jCIipo Dr. Kong and his group from Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore look at the arm and hand functional ability of one hundred and forty patients more than a year after stroke onset. The group found that upper extremity functional deficit was present in almost 70% of patients with chronic stroke. The lack of functional ability correlated to upper limb strength and spasticity. The group concluded that the most significant predictor of dexterity, functional outcome and quality of life was the severity of upper limb paresis on admission to rehabilitation.
The HandTutor is used in both acute and chronic hand and arm rehabilitation by occupational and physical therapists based both in hospital and outpatient clinics.

HandTutor, ArmTutor system improves functional movement outcomes

In the April edition of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American) http://bit.ly/iiSMgj Dr. Smitherman and his group from Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, 701 Grove Road, USA investigated the functional outcomes, following single-event multilevel surgery of the upper extremity in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. The group found that children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy showed significantly improved dynamic segmental alignment and, to a lesser degree, spontaneous use of the upper extremity following single-event multilevel surgery compared with a comparable nonoperative control group. However, the grasp-release ability did not significantly improve in either the operative or nonoperative group.
The HandTutor and ArmTutor system is used to train patients through intensive exercise practice to use their impaired arms and hands and improve their functional movement ability.

HandTutor, ArmTutor and LegTutor system provide objective evaluation and follow up

Objective evaluation and follow up combined with customized exercise practice are the fundamentals in physical and occupation therapy treatment of neurological and orthopedic injury and disease and will ensure optimal functional improvement and improve the patients quality of life. Functional assessment including the WOLF MOTOR FUNCTION TEST (WMFT) quantify upper extremity motor ability through timed and functional task assessments however, you will see from this demonstration and scoring protocol that the assessment has a large subjective element http://bit.ly/g3UPrE

HandTutor, ArmTutor, LegTutor, plasticity and functional outcome measures

In the March edition of Neurorehabil Neural Repair Dr. Butler and his team from Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine and Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center, Atlanta, GA, USA show a correlation between clinical outcome measures, such as the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) and the upper limb portion of the Fugl-Meyer (FM) motor assessment, and neuroimaging techniques, such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and blood oxygenation level–dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Treatment using virtual functional tasks provided by the HandTutor, ArmTutor, LegTutor system have been proven to improve the patients functional ability in neurological and orthopedic injuries and disease.

HandTutor system effective in upper extremity hemiparesis patients

In the February edition of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair http://bit.ly/grWa4B Dr. Whitall and his group from School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center Geriatrics Research, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA and University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland show that Bilateral arm training with rhythmic auditory cueing( BATRAC) is not superior to dose–matched therapeutic exercises (DMTE). However both rehabilitation programs durably improve motor function for individuals with chronic upper–extremity hemiparesis and with varied deficit severity.
The HandTutor system encourages upper extremity active exercise practice and has been proven effective in the treatment of chronic upper–extremity hemiparesis patients.